Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen (28 page)

“He might have wanted to make sure she didn't do what he thought she did,” Rhodes said.

“Well, he never got to talk about it. I shot him, and that's all there is to it.”

“What about the purse?”

“I threw it away. Shouldn't have taken it from the shop in the first place, but Sandra …
I
thought you'd believe somebody killed Lynn for it and then ditched it. Those fellas across the street don't belong in this country anyhow. I figured they could take the blame.”

Rhodes thought things had gone pretty much the way Jimmy had told it, at least in the case of Tyler's death. Jimmy was probably responsible for that one, all right, but not for the other. That one had gone the way he told it, too, but with Sandra doing the things Jimmy claimed he'd done.

“Things didn't work out like they were supposed to, did they,” Rhodes said.

“No, but if you were any kind of sheriff, they would've. You shouldn't care more about a bunch of illegals than you care for somebody you grew up with and played football with, Danny. This country's just plain gone to hell when that happens.”

“So now you're going to shoot me and Buddy?”

“Nope. Sandra and I are gonna leave, and you and your deputy can just sit here till we're gone. After that you can try to chase us down if you want to, but it won't do you any good. I know all the places to hide in this county, Danny. You won't find us.”

Rhodes didn't think that was Jimmy's plan at all. He turned to Buddy.

“You ever hear of ‘suicide by cop'?” he asked.

“Sure have,” Buddy said. “Guy tries something that gets himself killed, and it turns out he planned it that way all along. You think that's what Mr. Wiley has in mind?”

“Might be,” Rhodes said. “That way Sandra might get off. Jimmy, has the cancer come back?”

“None of your business,” Jimmy said. He stood up. “Come on, Sandra. Let's go.”

“It won't work, Jimmy,” Rhodes said. “We aren't going to shoot you.”

“You will if I shoot first. Come on, Sandra.”

“I'm not leaving, Jimmy. You sit back down.”

Jimmy looked at her, and that was all Rhodes had been waiting for. He kicked the coffee table, and it smacked into Jimmy's shins with a
crack
like the sound of a branch breaking.

Jimmy yelled and fell back on the couch. He fired the pistol, but the bullet went into the ceiling. He tried to right himself and shoot again, but he was too weak. Rhodes stepped across the coffee table and took hold of the revolver. His hand grasped the cylinder so it couldn't turn.

Jimmy didn't let go of the pistol. He twisted and thrashed as he tried to break away. Rhodes pushed him into the back of the couch with his free hand. Jimmy tired quickly and stopped struggling. Rhodes pulled the pistol away and handed it to Buddy, who was standing nearby with his own gun drawn.

“You didn't use to be so tough, Danny,” Jimmy wheezed.

“Like you said, times have changed.”

“Not for the better, either. You might as well lock me up. I don't care. I confess to everything. Just leave Sandra alone. Can you promise me that?”

“Sure,” Rhodes said. He looked at Sandra, who gave a slight nod. “I can promise you that, Jimmy.”

“Thanks, Danny. You're doing the right thing.”

“We'll see,” Rhodes said.

*   *   *

Rhodes didn't have to break his promise. He left Sandra alone, but as soon as Jimmy was booked and locked up, Sandra asked Rhodes if they could talk. Rhodes took her to the interview room, where she admitted that she'd killed Lynn.

“It was just like Jimmy said,” she told him. “An accident. I never meant to kill her.”

Rhodes didn't know the truth of that, but he wasn't the one who had to make the judgment. A jury would have to do that. Maybe Sandra wouldn't spend too long in jail. She might even be able to work at the Beauty Shack again, though how many women would want her to dry their hair was an open question.

As for Jimmy, he'd get a long sentence if he was still alive to go to trial. Rhodes didn't think he would be. He looked worse every day.

Lonnie had opened the shop the day after Sandra's arrest. The parking lot was crowded, and Rhodes wondered if Lonnie and Abby could handle all the business. They might have to find someone else to help them out.

Rhodes hadn't become the star of the Internet, but Jennifer Loam's Web site was a big hit, and Rhodes was at least the star of the county for a couple of days. After that there had been a car wreck near Thurston, and the photos that Jennifer took of the mangled autos had replaced Rhodes as the main attraction.

The autos had wound up at the Environmental Reclamation Center, where Mike and Al were still running things. Rhodes stopped in every few days to check on them. Al remained a man of few words.

Jeff Tyler's business was still closed, but Lonnie had placed a “store manager wanted” ad on Jennifer's Web site. Rhodes thought the place might reopen any day.

One evening when Rhodes was playing ball with Speedo and Yancey, Ivy came out and sat on the steps with him. It was getting dark, and some of the heat had gone out of the air. Now and then a car would drive by on the street in front of the house, but other than that the neighborhood was quiet.

“I've been thinking about what Jimmy said,” Rhodes told Ivy as Speedo rolled over Yancey and stole the ball from him.

“He said a lot of things.”

“He said the times have changed.”

“Of course they have,” Ivy said. “That's what times do.”

Yancey ran over with the ball and dropped it at Rhodes's feet. Rhodes picked it up.

“Do you think they've gotten worse?” Rhodes asked.

“They've gotten different, that's all.”

Rhodes threw the ball, and Speedo and Yancey charged off after it.

“He told me I'd gotten tough,” Rhodes asked.

Ivy laughed. The dogs stopped and looked back at her, then went for the ball. Yancey snatched it right out from under Speedo's nose and bounced off across the yard.

“You don't think I'm tough?” Rhodes said.

“You are when you have to be, and you had to be this time. Besides that, you're the star of the Internet.”

Rhodes hadn't mentioned Jennifer's Web site to Ivy.

“Who told you that?” he asked.

“I heard it at the beauty shop,” she said.

A
LSO
BY
B
ILL
C
RIDER

SHERIFF DAN RHODES MYSTERIES

The Wild Hog Murders

Murder in the Air

Murder in Four Parts

Of All Sad Words

Murder Among the O.W.L.S.

A Mammoth Murder

Red, White, and Blue Murder

A Romantic Way to Die

A Ghost of a Chance

Death by Accident

Winning Can Be Murder

Murder Most Fowl

Booked for a Hanging

Evil at the Root

Death on the Move

Cursed to Death

Shotgun Saturday Night

Too Late to Die

PROFESSOR SALLY GOOD MYSTERIES

A Bond with Death

Murder Is an Art

A Knife in the Back

PROFESSOR CARL BURNS MYSTERIES

Dead Soldiers

A Dangerous Thing

Dying Voices

One Dead Dean

About the Author

 

BILL CRIDER is the winner of two Anthony Awards and an Edgar Award finalist. An English college professor for many years, he's published more than seventy-five crime, Western, and horror novels, as well as a number of children's books. He lives with his wife in Alvin, Texas.

Visit his Web site at
www.billcrider.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

MURDER OF A BEAUTY SHOP QUEEN.
Copyright © 2012 by Bill Crider. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Crider, Bill.

Murder of a beauty shop queen : a Dan Rhodes mystery / Bill Crider.—1st ed.

     p. cm.

“A Thomas Dunne book.”

ISBN 978-0-312-64017-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-01497-9 (e-book)

1.  Rhodes, Dan (Fictitious character)—Fiction.   2.  Sheriffs—Fiction.   3.  Texas—Fiction.   I.  Title.

   PS3553.R497M875 2012

   813'.54—dc23

2012013603

e-ISBN 9781250014979

First Edition: August 2012